Freight

Receiving, sorting, routing, delivering—managing freight effectively can mean the difference between growing the profit margin or losing ground on fuel costs, lost shipments, or an unexpected bottleneck that slows down the entire supply chain. The business that succeeds in this situation is the one that not only plans ahead but can also react quickly and all along the line, to changing conditions, in real time. The dock operation that never handles a shipment more times than is necessary, that fills a rush order without missing a beat, or that locates a mislaid pallet in minutes is truly a step ahead of their competition.

Rugged tablets have a place both in the hands of the driver as well as on the dock. An onboard computer, equipped with 4G LTE, gives a truck driver access to a vast array of data and information that makes doing their job easier, and more efficiently. An industrial tablet allows a driver to enter directions to his next stop, pull up a work order, communicate with a dispatcher, and print out an invoice or bill of lading. Using the tethered stylus, customer signatures are captured and stored instantly on the industrial tablet. Sunlight readable, rugged, and with industry standard ports, a tablet computer accepts a connection to printers, modems, scanners, and more.

LTL docks can range from a handful of dock doors to well over 400. Freight is stripped from one trailer and cross docked to another trailer at another dock door. The move needs to be quick, and accurate. Freight loaded onto the wrong truck costs money and often times, a customer. Glacier customers install Kodiak forklift computers, or rugged tablets, onto their fork trucks to make sure this process is happening at the utmost of efficiency. A forklift operator enters a trailer and scans a bar code affixed to the freight. The freight’s details, and where it is going, appear on the industrial tablet screen. The operator touches the screen to add any important information including reweigh or OS&D information. Additionally, a safety placard requirement for this freight can be entered as required at this time. The networked computer alerts the driver to the appropriate door and trailer where it is to be loaded. The application prompts the forklift driver to touch the screen once loaded thus updating the entire system. A customer calling for details has the latest information on his shipment.

Managing the dock mandates rugged tablets for dock supervisors. Moving between doors, communicating with drivers and forklift operators, and updating pertinent dock information are at a supervisor’s fingertips. Rugged tablets provide dock management folks a tool that is versatile, user-friendly, and that can be dropped and bumped without risk of failure or damage.

Thousands of LTL terminals across the United States already put logistics solutions at their operator’s fingertips in the form of Glacier-supplied and supported rugged tablets. Rugged forklift computers provide a user-friendly touchscreen interface on a large, color display equipped with long range bar code scanners. Every piece of freight is tracked every step of the way. An additional industrial tablet can be mounted on the wall between terminal dock doors, where pickups and deliveries can be logged and accessed by both drivers and dock personnel. And, Glacier’s industrial tablet computers let workers take processing power mobile where wireless connectivity allows for keeping track of the operation from anywhere.

The dock is a tough environment and Glacier’s rugged computers are built to protect your data and productivity. Our rugged hardware is sealed and designed to withstand impacts and temperature extremes, so they keep working no matter the freight dock conditions.